Worry Persists Over Caribbean Religions' Ritual Mercury Use

June 21, 2004|By David Fleshler, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

LAUDERHILL -- In a strip shopping center, behind a window displaying statues of voodoo spirits, the St. Ange Botanica sells herbs and candles to help people gain love, money or health. It also sells mercury, a poisonous heavy metal and a common ingredient in Caribbean religious rituals.

In voodoo, Santeria and other faiths with roots in Africa, many practitioners sprinkle the silvery liquid on the floor, carry it with them in pouches, burn it in candles and pour it into bath water. While these practices are intended to bring luck or success in love, federal health officials say they could be making people sick and contaminating their homes.

Although mercury legally can be sold, the St. Ange and most other religious-supply stores keep it out of sight. When a reporter requested it by its Creole name, vidajan, a clerk went to a room in back and returned with a plastic bag of mercury capsules. They cost $6 each.

Ribert Mones, the store's owner, whose business card identifies him as a spiritualist able to assist with evil spirits, jinx removal and love problems, said clients mix mercury with a cologne called Florida water and spread it on their bodies for luck.

"It's not dangerous," he said, standing by a counter stacked with jars of powdered herbs. "I can put it on my body and nothing will happen. It's not something that can hurt people."

But long-term exposure to low doses of mercury can cause tremors (initially of the eyelids, tongue and fingers), irritability, excessive shyness, nervousness, insomnia, memory loss and a decline in cognitive abilities, according to a 2002 Environmental Protection Agency report on the ritualistic use of mercury.

Many people sprinkle mercury in their homes, where it can seep into carpets and floorboards and emit hazardous vapor for years.

"That's a real concern," said John Risher, senior science adviser in the toxicology branch of the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. "I know some practitioners sprinkle it in their houses, near cribs. Then you leave the house or the apartment, and somebody has just bought a contaminated home."

Voodoo and Santeria are rooted in the beliefs of West African people who came to the Caribbean as slaves. Voodoo became established in Haiti, Santeria in Cuba. Both religions have a supreme being, as well as lesser deities on whom believers call for help with their lives.

When government and academic researchers in New Jersey and Connecticut visited the religious-supply shops called botanicas, many denied selling mercury and said incorrectly that it was illegal. But when the researchers sent Haitian or Cuban colleagues to the same shops, they were able to buy it.

"No one really has a clue in terms of numbers," said Arnold Wendroff, founder of the New York-based Mercury Poisoning Project, who originally brought the issue to the attention of the federal government. "One survey in the Bronx found that in 1995, between 25,000 and 155,000 units of mercury were sold."